


Three-leafed Clover and Hot Glue

by Nikeofthevines



Category: david dobrik - Fandom, vlog squad
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-07-29 13:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 6,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20083183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikeofthevines/pseuds/Nikeofthevines
Summary: In this story your name is Adela, an aspiring artist and you just moved to LA from New York to start a new life but it isn't going as well as planned, bad luck followed you to the West Coast. David Dobrik is known to be the luckiest person in the world. He's constantly winning awards, thousands at the casino and thousands more at poolYou have this crazy idea that you can steal David's luck. So, here's the plan: go to David's party, meet him and make an unforgettable impression then steal that luck. What happens when your plans hit some rocks down the road?





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first fanfic on this site. I don't know if I'm doing this right, so if you have suggestions and constructive criticisms... write away!

I swear I will kill her, but this is not the right time.  
“Are you sure you really don’t have a thousand dollars just lying around?”  
I turned around to look at my roommate with flames as eyes, “you are a fucking bitch. You deserve to rot.” I shoved more clothes inside my duffel bag on the bed as she continued to pace back and forth. We can solve this, she repeated.  
“I’m about to snap at you. Just pack your bags and tell them we’re leaving.”  
Fuck. Fuck. As if my day couldn’t get any worse. First my application to go to RISD got rejected, then I got fucking fired from the Japanese restaurant I was working at and now this: my roommate gambling away our rent money. I gave her half of my rent at the beginning of the week and this morning she woke me up, banging her fist against my door, telling me that she lost a thousand dollars after four rounds of Poker.  
“I will get you for this, Nel.” I said, taking the bag strap to my shoulder.  
Nelly and I lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s so small that we had to chose if we wanted a dining table or a couch for the little space that we had. We chose a couch… that I paid for. I paid for most of these things. I want to pull her hair out at a Wendy’s parking lot. I will never find an apartment like this ever again. It might be the size of a shoebox, but it was damn well affordable. I hate this.  
A grey-haired man in his late 60s stood outside our door, “girls, if you can’t afford rent, I need you to vacate the apartment. I don’t want to do this the hard way.”  
“Gene, please. Can’t we just make our advance deposit our rent for this month? Then next month we will pay you the deposit back. Gene, you have to understand!” Nelly pleaded.  
But this is not the first time this happened. Two months ago, we were two weeks late on rent because Nelly lost her rent money gambling. This is feeling like a broken cassette tape and I’m not sticking around anymore. Fuck this and fuck her.  
Gene crossed his arms together, “girls, if I rented this place on AirBnB I would earn a lot more money. Probably three times more than what I get from you. I wouldn’t also have to deal with this. I’m an old man, I can’t keep doing this.”  
“Gene… give us time. I’m getting paid tomorrow. And Addy too!”  
Gene’s beady eyes probed me for a few seconds and exhaled in defeat, “Danielle, I’m sorry this won’t do. Vacate the premises or we’ll settle this in front of the judge.”  
“Addy, say something.” Nelly said.  
“I don’t want to go to court, Nel.”  
Flashes of what happened next are the only things I remember. Nelly charged at me like a bull, pinning me to the wall. “You bitch!” She pulled my hair out and that’s when I pushed her off me and pushed her to the floor.  
Now we’re sitting in jail waiting for someone to bail us out.  
**Three-leafed clover and hot glue. **  
** ** ** A David Dobrik fanfiction **  
** ** “You’re a money sucking succubus.”  
“Well you’re a try-hard who’s never won anything in her life.”  
“Fuck you.”  
We were registered for simple battery and disorderly conduct and on top of that we now have to go court to face Gene. I’m so not happy with this.  
My brother bailed me out of jail and brought me to a café to calm down two hours after.  
“So…” He started.  
“I can’t deal with this city anymore. It’s like I’m so unlucky here.” I said, “I’ve been trying to get in to RISD for two years now and look where I am; fresh out of jail.”  
“I have news from back home.” He took a sip from his 10-dollar cappuccino that I could only wish to afford, “Bucky died last night”.  
My mind spun and I just wanted to scream why isn’t anything going my way Jesus fucking Christ.  
“What?” I gaped at my brother, “but he was just nine years old. What did the vet say?”  
“I don’t know the specifics, Adela. I just know they cremated him and spread out his ashes at Getsemani Park.”  
“I fucking hate you.”  
“I bailed you out.”  
“I know.”  
I hated him because he’s living his hotshot life here in New York as an architect and for two years I’ve been busting tables and helping out in the kitchen for 2 years.  
“Do you know how I got fired?” I relaxed on the chair, “a customer talked to me in Japanese and I said “Konnichiwa” because who the fuck speaks Japanese and fucking Karen talked to my manager saying that I was culturally appropriating Japanese culture. The nerve of that woman.”  
“Language.” He eyed me “They can’t just fire you because you’re not Japanese. And you’re still half Asian!”  
“Oh, you don’t know who Karen is. Apparently, Karen owns everything in Hell’s Kitchen. What she says goes. And now I’m stuck with nothing. I should have gone to California with Hanna.”  
“What’s stopping you?”  
“From moving to California…? I don’t have the money, I haven’t talked to Hanna in almost a year and I have a hearing next week.”  
“Settle. Get your deposit back and fly to California. You’ll be closer to Mom and Dad and you can put this RISD thing behind you.”  
***  
What my brother told me gave me an idea. So, at the hearing I told them about Nellie’s gambling problem and that I paid for almost everything in our apartment and I walked out of the civil courthouse with 700 dollars.  
The night before, I had talked to Hanna about my plans to move to California with the 700 dollars I got and the 130 dollars remaining in my bank account. I would have to look for a job at a restaurant, I told her. She’s an aspiring actress and works part-time as a nanny. She’s one of the three people from my class who moved to bigger cities after high school. I moved to New York with Nellie and Hanna moved to Hollywood.  
Long story short, I bought a 457-dollar one-way ticket to LAX and I am now on my way to a new life. Thank fuck.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The characters talk about David in this one.

So, this was her place. Hanna lived in a 2-bedroom apartment with two other girls. She said I was lucky I called before she could get a new roommate to fill the empty bed next to hers. She’s an actress, so she’s naturally pretty. I’ve known her for decades; her face doesn’t intimidate me anymore. However, her roommates’ faces are a new story.  
She lives with models but judging from the tea boxes and the unopened packages on the kitchen counter I suspect they’re ig models.  
“I’m Nicole and this is Zara”, Hanna’s 5’9 model roommate shook my hand.  
I introduced myself and we made small talk. They were ig models. Zara said she used to model professionally but realized there was more money on Instagram. I felt sad I couldn’t earn money because I wasn’t as tall and pretty as they are. "Snap out of it, who cares" I told myself.  
I slept until eleven PM and told my new roommate that I was planning on looking for a job as soon as my jetlag stopped consuming me.  
And I did. The next day, I set up my “home-office” and sent out my resumé to every job agency, emails and Facebook pages I could find. I put away my stuff and at 8 PM I was already exhausted. I haven’t even gotten out to see what this new city was going to offer me. I hope I didn’t bring my bad luck to the west coast.

After dinner, I would go to bed at 10 and reminisce about the good old carefree days with Hanna. She would then roll to her side and watch YouTube videos that had that same annoying sound. That TA NA NA NA NA. That’s when I would go to the bathroom and get ready for bed.  
For a few days, the routine was the same. Then I ran out of clothes and things to put away. So, after looking for job openings on LinkedIn, I would watch old chick flick movies that reminded me of the simplicity of life.  
This time I was on my third flic of the day, when Hanna lied on her bed watching those annoying YouTube videos. I couldn't focus on Chris Pine’s face with all the shouting. I heard “Zane! Zane” coming from her video and I had enough.  
“Can you please put on headphones?”  
She paused the video and I continued watching Just My Luck with Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine, in which Lindsay Lohan a girl with all of the bad luck in the world falls in love with the luckiest guy in the world. Of course, if were her I’d take the good luck and leave.  
**  
I woke up to an email from Target rejecting my job application. I wanted to cry my fucking heart out. This is it; I’ve hit rock bottom. I let out a huge grunt and told Hanna I was the unluckiest person in the world.  
“That’s funny, because literally in this video I saw last night they said David is the luckiest person in the world!”  
“who?”  
“David Dobrik.”  
“I don’t know who that is…”  
**  
I’ve been living in Hollywood with my three roommates for two weeks. I still didn't have a job. I wanted to die. I’ve spent my time reading rejection emails, crying and eating ice cream. I definitely cannot make it in Hollywood. Should I just give up and go back to my parents in Portland?  
I was talking to Hanna at the dining table, when Nicole and Zara barged in screaming. I was pouring my heart out about how my life was slowly crumbling down and how I’m left with nothing but 259.38 dollars in my bank account, but I guess Nicole and Zara’s news were something to stop crying for.  
They stopped squealing and looked at me and Hanna in our distressed state.  
“Oh…” Zara said. I wiped my eyes and greeted them. I told them I was fine and that she can go on telling whatever news she had.  
“We got invited to a party in Studio City.”  
I stood up to get water so I could stop hiccupping. I wish I could be happy about a party in fucking Studio City. The farthest I’ve explored to is the grocery store because I can't afford anything aside from the basic necessities.  
“Whose party?” Hanna said.  
“David Dobrik. I met this guy, Mike, at a photoshoot and he told me about David's party. Apparently, they’re friends.” Zara said.  
I did a complete 180°, “David Dobrik?”. And that’s when the craziest idea came to me.


	3. 3

I got ready in the bathroom with Hanna as soon as I had my plan figured out.  
“This is your first LA party!” Hanna said.  
“Yeah”, I looked at her trying to understand whether she can handle my telling her the plan.   
“Han, remember that movie Just My Luck?”  
“The one with Chris Pine? I’m well-aware.”  
“Well…” I put on lip gloss then continued, “you said that David Dobrik is the luckiest person in the world. And I think I’m the unluckiest girl to have ever lived”.  
“What are you saying?” She looked at me with disbelief.  
“I’m gonna steal his luck.”  
She laughed at my face. I know! I know it’s weird and it does sound impossible, but I’m desperate.  
“You have lost your mind. It’s great you’re finally going out tonight instead of wallowing here the entire day”.  
But I haven’t lost my mind. I think I was becoming aware of the magic the wheels this world. I can’t wait to get a taste of that Dobrik luck. I need it so bad.


	4. 4

We arrived at a big house on top of a hill. It was loud, crowded and out of control. _Did he invite all these people?_ Zara said people just come up because they know he’s throwing a party. _Isn’t that illegal?_ Only if David decides to call the cops.  
Nicole recognized somebody from the ‘vlog squad’, whatever that means.  
“I can’t believe we’re here” Zara said amazed. “Look, there’s Todd Smith!”  
This was a 22-year-old’s house. He’s just a year older than me and he has all of this. Friends, money, cars and international recognition. So, this is what envy is.  
“Should we go in?” Hanna asked.  
“We should look for Mike first. Thank him for the invite.”  
We found Mike by the pool table in the middle of the kitchen. That’s where the dining table is supposed to be, I think. Mike leaned towards the pool table with his arms stretched, probably to show his toned arms, smiling to the girls in front of him. Playing pool was a chubby guy sweating his life away. He screamed: “You see that?!” when he shot the last ball in the hole.  
Michele whispered to me that David once won ten thousand dollars in a game of pool. Good for him, I mocked.  
Zara tapped her finger on Mike’s shoulder, and he turned around beaming the biggest smile as if he didn’t already have enough female attention. Zara introduced us to Mike and the other guy, Jonah.  
“Mike!” A man said from behind me. He said in a singsong, “you always do this!”. He was tall, blond and much older. He held a plastic plate of cake and grapes and spoke, not letting Mike nor Jonah chime in: “You know David said this was supposed to be a mellow night, right?”. Mike responded with a chuckle and softly spoken words resounding like “but they’re hot”. Yikes.  
Jason laughed and sat on a chair in front of the firepit in the backyard. Watching him sit down made me notice the most amazing view. The Californian horizon was breathtaking. I’ve only seen it from our 2nd-floor-aparment in Hollywood but most of what I saw was blocked by tall buildings and fire escapes.  
I excused myself from the interesting conversation with Mike about the best pools of the neighborhood and walked out to the backyard. You could see the Universal Studios Hollywood from there. You could see LA in its entirety. I could see success; too bad it wasn’t mine.  
“I heard the guy who owns this place got yachts and bitches in Ibiza”  
I turned around to a scrawny guy, probably about my age, wearing a baseball cap and all black from head to toe. I looked at him for a second worried then he smiled. His smile was so big even his eyes sang pretty songs about happiness and cherubs. He is cute, I thought.  
“Well, whoever owns the place knows exactly what the best parts of life are. He’s not caught up in the things that don’t count.” I sighed, “I wish I were the same.”  
“Wow.” He walked closer, “are you a psychic or something?”. He checked himself then said, “I meant psychologist.”  
“I’m being weird, I’m sorry. But he doesn’t have a dining table. But look, he has the best view in all of Studio City; a view that could make anyone feel powerful just by looking at the horizon.” I looked at him, “I’m babbling. Stop me!”  
“No. I like what you’re saying”. He smiled, “can I take a picture of you with my disposable? It’s something new I really like doing.”  
He explained the camera was a good conversation starter, especially with intimidating LA people. I flashed a smile towards the camera and the flash blinded me.  
“I don’t know if my eyes were open”, I said.  
“I guess we will find out when I go develop them.”  
“Develop. That’s something you don’t hear often these days… I mostly hear youtubers, Instagram and snapchat. It was refreshing to meet you.” I reached out my hand when a guy from behind me pushed me to the slick glass railings with his knee. I cursed under my breath.  
“Damn, I’m sorry”, the guy said. He held a blimp-looking orange object in his arm. He sprinted away like a football player, a tall guy with dark hair followed him. The music playing was too loud for me to hear what they were saying.  
“I think I need to get back to my friends before I get pushed down these hills.” I smiled, “It was nice to meet you though.” I walked away and back to the kitchen where Zara was still talking to Mike. I asked where Nicole and Hanna were when I saw them talking to the guys playing Fortnite in the living room.  
“Addy! Come join us!” Hanna shouted from across the room. The couch was packed with people drinking, smoking and even making out. I made my way to the TV and sat on the floor next to a guy with blue dreads and a gold chain. I’m meeting all the douchebags tonight, aren’t I?  
“Your name is Addy? Like Adderall?” A guy with dark hair and dark eyes sitting on the edge of the couch said. The players chuckled at his joke and Hanna told everyone my name was Adela.  
“Nice to meet you Adela. Where are you from?” The guy said.  
“I’m from Portland…”  
“My name’s Brandon.”  
“I’m from Portland, Brandon. Nice to meet you.” He seemed nice. And he was wearing a The Queen Is Dead t-shirt, so I automatically liked him.  
Hanna interrupted, “Brandon was just telling us about a bit he did with David for yesterday’s vlog.”  
“Did you see it?” Brandon asked. I shook my head and he held a phone in front of me with the vlog playing.  
I froze.  
That was David I just met.  
I wanted to make a good impression and once again my bad luck got in the way. What a bad fucking coincidence.


	5. 5

Brandon showed me a clip of him obsessing over his new “best friend” David. They cuddled on the couch, cook spaghetti together and rub sun cream on each other’s back. Then the older guy I met earlier appeared in the scene, screamed at David for “forgetting about their past and all they had to go through together” and chased Brandon with a…  
“what the hell is that?!” I was shocked.  
“Oh, a flame thrower”, Jonah said. He was wearing a Rick & Morty shirt and smelt of coffee and maybe of Subway sandwiches.  
“of course, you guys have a flame thrower.” I said under my breath.  
Jonah paused the game, smiled at me and said: “do you wanna see it?”.  
“Don’t scare her off, Jonah” Brandon said.  
“I’m not.” He looked at Brandon, then back at me. “I’m gonna go get it”. He hopped up from the beanbag and shuffled to the hall across from the living room.  
“He’s so cute when he’s excited.” A guy from behind me said. He had blue hair and gold chains on. “I’m Nick.”  
“Hi, Nick”  
“We call him BigNik around here.” Brandon said.  
“So, you really don’t know who we are?” Nick said.  
“Wow, Nick” Brandon chuckled.  
Hanna told them that I had just moved from New York where I was working as a sous-chef. Sure, I was working as a “sous-chef”. I would have called it “kitchen assistant” or “errand girl”, but “sous-chef sounds better.  
“And I don’t really follow any online personalities…” I said.  
“Well, welcome. Here you have BigNik, he’s a global sensation and girls want to fuck him… but that’s because his parents are rich. I’m Brandon, I’m sad but I met Tarantino recently so I’m psychologically well now. I don’t if you have met David, but he’s the reason why we all have food on our table.” Just as Brandon finished the introductions, Jonah plopped back on the beanbag and showed us the big white flame thrower in his hand. Then, Brandon added: “and this is Nick… Or Jonah”.  
“’Cause I look like Jonah Hill” Jonah said.  
“And he’s our resident guy-with-lots-of-bad-and-dangerous-ideas. You should see that vlog where we told him he was getting a supporting role in a Seth Rogan movie. It was hilarious!” Brandon playfully swatted Jonah on his shoulder and laughed.  
From the kitchen, somebody shouted: “Be careful with that Jonah” because half a second later Jonah lit the flame thrower. Flames engulfed the entire living room and I felt the heat so close to me, I thought I was being turned into a kebab. I turned around after that absurd incident and I saw Brandon’s left side completely read and his scruff a little bit burnt. And all I heard then was a cacophony of cries.  
“Oh fuck! Fuck! Jonah, what did you do?!”  
“Nick—”  
“Is someone vlogging?”  
“Brandon are you okay?”  
Hanna took my arm and looked me in the eyes, “are you okay?”  
I was okay. I looked at Brandon and he was in shock.  
“Fuck! Fuck! Brandon, I’m so sorry!” Jonah said.  
“This is why kids shouldn’t play with this shit!”, a guy with dark buzzcut hair said before he called an ambulance.  
Mike took the phone from his hand, “don’t call an ambulance. It’ll be faster if we drive him to the ER.”  
“Jonah! I told everyone not to go to my room!” David cried. He ran next to Brandon and yelled out: “Ok, guys! The party’s over, everybody out!”.  
Everyone flooded towards the front door, some 60 young adults and an old English bulldog.  
“What happened?” everyone wanted to know.  
I followed Hanna and Nicole out of the house and waited for Zara in the car. 10 minutes in and we received a text from her saying she’s going home with Mike, so we drove home. It was a silent ride.  
“That was wild”, Nicole said.  
Then we went back to silence.  
When Hanna and I were lying on our beds, I said: “That was my bad luck earlier, you know.”  
“Shut up, Addy. Don’t blame yourself for things you didn’t do.”  
“But everything was going great before I got there!”  
“Not your fault. Jonah should have known not to use it close to Brandon.”  
“But…”  
“no buts… the universe isn’t punishing you for something you did in a past life. The universe doesn’t hate you. Stop blaming yourself, because now I have this theory that all your bad luck comes from you saying you have bad luck.”  
I sighed. I turned off the lights and turned to my side to look at the wall instead of Hanna.  
Today was a disaster.


	6. 6

The day after I was lying on the couch watching Queer Eye using my brother’s Netflix account when Zara came home.  
“Hey Ad.”  
She still had last night’s dress on and her hair a mess. She smiled at me and sat on the couch by my legs.  
“Brandon’s fine. Mike checked up with Jason and he said Brandon didn’t get burned but his scruff did though. Are the others home?” She said.  
“Everyone’s gone to work.” Except for me.   
“Oh.” She looked around, then back at me and my pajamas and my sad messy bun. “Do you want to go out? We could go grab something to eat.”  
“I don’t know…”  
“It’s my treat!” Zara smiled. “I just got paid this morning for the gig I did yesterday. So, consider it a celebration.”  
**  
We went out for brunch. I had smoked salmon and avocado bagels and she had green tea and strawberry salad while we talked about how hard living in LA is. She told me she worked at Starbucks when she got here. She wanted to become an actress but could never book a role. Not even for an ad. So she turned to social media.  
“I wish I could do what you do. But as you can see, I’m built differently.” I said.  
She frowned.  
“This is not the only way, you know. Open up yourself, this city is for major hustle and grind. You could be a freelance artist.”  
I haven’t thought about it. We talked for what seemed minutes but as soon as we were done with brunch it was one in the afternoon.  
“Thank you, Zara. LA is intimidating as hell.” I said, thinking about last night’s party.   
“It is. Everyone is just keeping their head high and trying not to compare themselves to other people. The moment you start comparing, your whole world will crumble. I try not to think about it, some days it’s hard though.” She sighed.   
We walked to her car and she sat on the driver’s seat. “You know like at David’s party, everyone there is gorgeous and instafamous. Kelsey, Stas, Cindy… it’s really hard not to compare. But I thought about it, and even though we don’t have the same number of followers, we were at the same party. Rising up.” She smiled and we drove through PCH listening to the radio.


	7. Chapter 7

A week passed since my talk with Zara. She’s been going out with Mike on a daily and I’ve been grinding my ass off as a freelance artist, and it’s working well.  
“Damn, girl! Go to sleep” Hanna said, pulling a pillow to cover her eyes. It was two in the morning and I was finishing a logo I was doing for a new podcast.  
“Give me 20 minutes tops! Just some light shading and I’m done.” I said from the desk from across her bed.  
She stood up and look what I was doing from behind my shoulder. “What’s this for?”  
“Doesn’t Matter podcast. This guy named Scott told me to make his podcast a new logo.”  
“Doesn’t Matter…”  
“He said the podcast used to be called ‘scott-cast’ or something” I shrugged. “I’m sorry, I can go work in the living room.” I started to gather my stuff when she put a hand on my shoulder and said: “that’s Scotty Sire.”  
“Oh. Okay.”  
“He’s David’s friend.”  
“Oh…”  
**  
Working on the living room’s coffee table was very uncomfortable. My knees started shaking so I moved to the couch and put my laptop on my lap. I was done making the logo. It looked nice and I was content with it, so I decided to submit it.  
I uploaded the file and wrote a description about the design. A few seconds later and a notification popped up. Scott wrote a reply to thank me for my work and that he loved it.  
**Thanks, I really liked working on this one.** I wrote. He stopped replying, of course. But he was online. Why not start a conversation?  
**This is Scotty Sire, right? I was at David’s party last week. It might have been my fault that Jonah used the flame thrower at Brandon. Sorry!**  
Scott took a minute to reply, then wrote: **Oh I wasn’t there but I saw Brandon yesterday and he’s fine now. Thanks again for your work.**  
I guess that was it. So I put my things on the desk and moved to my bed. But before I could turn off my computer, I noticed new messages from Scott:  
**I told David about your message. He saw your pic, he says he remembers you. **  
**He said to ask how you are and sorry that the party got stupid wild**  
**He said “damn it scott don’t write stupid wild, that’s stupid”**  
**He said to delete everything and just ask you “what’s up”.**  
I stood in the dark room with the screen’s glaring brightness in front of me. What the fuck.  
I wrote, **“tell him “nothing, heading to bed. How about you?””**  
**My friends and I are going to a USC to surprise a fan. This is David now by the way**  
I don’t know what I was thinking but the next thing I wrote was: **can I come?**  
**Of course! You know where I live**  
**I’ll be there in 20.**


	8. Chapter 8

David’s place was dark and silent. He must have left.

I wrote to Scott “I’m at David’s. Where are you guys?”.

I hopped off Hanna’s car I “borrowed” while she’s soundly sleeping at home. It’s a bit chilly tonight and I forgot to bring a cardigan. Great. I heard a squirrel ran from the gate the trash bin in front of David’s parked cars. I walked to the gate and shouted “Hello?”, so sadly into the darkness.

Well, that’s what I get for going out at 2:42 AM. Maybe they fell asleep? Or maybe they’ve already left? Or maybe they forgot I was supposed to be here.

I put my hand on the gate and sighed. The only way this could go worse is if the gate’s an electric fence or something. My mouth swung open to scream at my highest of my capacity and my whole body jolted in a split second when David’s face jumped out of the bin. He screamed out “BAH!” at me. It took me another second to understand what was going on and then compose myself – still screaming, naturally – to point at the squirrel that about to climb over to the bin.

The older guy that was at the party last week was also inside the garbage bin with David. He laughed while also screaming in almost perfect harmony with me when he spotted the squirrel. The squirrel jumped over to David’s stomach area and held on tight for dear life. David yelled for Scott: “Scott get him off! Fuck! Fuck! Scott get him off”. He shook his body to release himself from the animal’s hold while his eyes welled up with tears. “Scott, please!”. Scott came chuckling from behind one of the cars and eased the squirrel off David. The other guy tried to climb out of the bin but failed miserably falling back in with a loud thud.

“Who the hell threw an entire box of donuts here?! This is specifically for plastic disposal!” He said.

“Jay, are you okay?” David laughed, shoving his vlogcamera inside the garbage bin.

The squirrel went into my direction, so I screamed and hopped on the metal-grilled gate. David turned around to film me. I climbed higher when the squirrel tried to reach for my shoe. I did what David would do in the situation; cry out for Scott. “Scott, a little help?”.

Scott laughed and shooed the animal away.

We each sighed out a breath of relief and Jay finally got out of the bind. He patted himself clean and reached a hand to me, “I’m Jason, by the way”.

He had pink stains on his sweater and his hair was messy. “Hi, I’m Adela.”

“We tried to prank you, but… I think we’re the ones who got pranked, Adela!” He said.

***

Several minutes later we were in David’s fancy car. Sitting in it for the first time made me feel so goddamn rich. I felt I just experienced the height of luxury for the first time, and there behind me was Jason sitting in his white pink-polka-dotted sweater.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go change, Jay?” Scott said.

“Scott, I know I look horrible. Can we just let Jason be smelly and disgusting in peace? I think I broke my tailbone.”

“Are you alright?” David said from the front seat.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He grunted, “Although, Dave that was some great footage you got there. There was no way somebody could have staged that better than how it happened.”

“Is this how it is normally is for you guys?” I asked.

“What Jason breaking his back? Well, yes”. David turned to the passenger seat and smiled.

“The tailbone is in the butt, you dumbass.”

“Oh, today’s a special edition then!” I teased.

“I think I’m gonna need to ice my butt at USC”.


	9. Chapter 9

We arrived at an empty dorm-room at USC with a guy named Diego who apparently DMed with David asking him for help to surprise his roommate for his birthday.

“Natalie’s coming soon with champagne, party poppers, strippers and balloons.” David said, looking at his phone.

“You got him strippers?” Jason exclaimed.

“I meant streamers.” David paused and continued, “should we get him strippers too?”

“I don’t think that…” Diego started.

Before he could finish his sentence, David was already on his phone with Natalie asking her about strippers. I could hear her frustrated voice from the phone.

“Yeah… two? Three?” He looked around but nobody gave him an answer, so I went: “2 and a half!”.

His eyes grew bigger and smiled, “get two and get Sassy Cassy as well.”

“Who’s Sassy Cassy?” I asked Scott. He said, “oh, you will soon find out.”

***

Natalie arrived with streamers and helium balloons and in went everyone from who lived on the floor. So the four of us + Natalie + Diego and 13 people all crammed in a very small two-people dorm-room.

“The strippers are gonna be here in a second.” Natalie said.

“What, they just come in command?” I asked.

“David’s a bigshot in this town. Everything David wants, David gets.” Natalie said in a dry tone. I don’t know if she was kidding or not.

The strippers arrived and I met Sassy Cassy and she was definitely a delight to talk to. We turned off all the lights and remained quite for a while waiting for the birthday boy, Robin, to arrive to his room.

We heard the doorknob turn. Scott turned on the music – Dancing Queen – and Jason popped the champagne at him while everyone shouted: “SURPRISE!”. Confetti floated in the room and I felt sweaty bodies against mine. Jason turned around and sprayed everyone else with the champagne. The music stopped and we sang Robin a happy birthday. Jason sang his heart out and David’s smile from behind the camera was gigantic. He was in the zone. This is his perfect place, heaven.

“So, Robin.” David started. “Happy Birthday. I know you’re on your second year of college right now. Congrats for not dropping out yet.” He said in between giggles.

“I’ll drop out if you let me join the vlogsquad”, Robin said.

“No, okay don’t do that, ‘cause that would be _stupid_.” He giggled again. “Robin, I know you have to pay for your tuition and everything and me and my friends from Seatgeek want to help out. So, one day you can graduate and not have so much student loan to pay off, so you could hate your job without being in debt.” He laughed, “I’m kidding. I’m kidding.” I could see that Robin’s tears were falling without him noticing it because his smile was as big as it was when he opened the door.

He took a piece of paper from Jason and gave it to Robin, “so here is fourteen thousand dollars to help you with that. Study hard kid!”

Robin was speechless and so was I. Observing David in his element was incredible. The man was incredible.

Everybody drank champagne straight from the bottle and danced to Dancing Queen. We had to open the door before any of us suffered from shortness of breath. Some people stepped out and preferred to watch the next portion from outside of the room.

Two girls dressed as half-naked nurses pulled Robin from the crowd and pushed him on the bed. Of course, David was next to him to film, not missing a single movement. Sassy Cassy jumped up from behind and massaged Robin’s neck and shoulders while the other girls stripped out of their and shook their butts in front of him. Jason stepped in front of the camera and said, “that reminds me”. He put the champagne bottle over his behind. “I needed to ice my butt.”

David laughed and pointed the camera back to Robin who was flocked by three strippers grinding on him.

“I’m actually gay!” Robin yelled, loud enough that everyone in the room heard and the entire room erupted in a huge laughter.

“Scott, hit Dancing Queen”. And for the second time, at 3.40 AM, we danced to Abba’s masterpiece.


	10. Chapter 10

Jason, Scott, David and I sat in David’s Tesla on our way home listening to the radio. Natalie drove home an hour before us because she wanted to go to sleep. _I wanted a bed against me too_, I thought. I didn’t think vlogging would be this exhausting. David’s camera was propped on the dashboard.

“That was intense.” I said, pointing at the camera.

“You’re tired? Oh, you wouldn’t last an entire day in the vlogsquad!” Jason interjected from the back.

“Oh! No, no! I’m totally fine.” I said. “Damn yeah, I’m up for another surprise!”

“I have to take my kids to school in like three hours, but Dave do we need to give 14 thousand dollars to somebody else?”

David didn’t say anything, he just turned up the radio’s volume. Natasha Bedingfield’s _Unwritten_ played and David sang along for the first verse.

I joined him when the singer sang the pre-chorus. He turned on the camera.

**Staring at the blank page before you **

**Open up the dirty window**

David and I looked at each other and then went back to emoting hardly to the song.

**Let the sun illuminate the words that you can’t find**

Scott and Jason laughed at us. “You two are dweebs. I’m sorry Adela, I know I just me you, but you too are a dweeb”, Jason said.

**Reaching for something in the distance**

**So close you can almost taste it**

David put his hand on my left shoulder, and we looked at each other once again:** Release your inhibitions!**

**Feel the rain on your skin**

**No one else can feel it for you **

**Only you can let it in **

Now it was David and mine’s turn to laugh because Jason and Scott joined in singing the chorus.

**No one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips**

**Drench yourself in words unspoken**

Our arms fling all over inside the car towards the camera and at each other. We sang our hearts out while cruising down the 101 highway to _Unwritten_. I think my life is looking up.

**Live your life with arms wide open**

**Today is where your book begins,**

**The rest is still unwritten.**

*******

We got to David’s place and he parked the Tesla next to his red Ferrari. Okay, I still am jealous of how rich he is.

Scott got out of the car and ran to the house. Jason gathered his things and got out the car at the exact time I did.

“You’re cool, Adela, but now the old man’s gonna have to sleep before he passes out.” Jason said and went inside.

And there I was standing between two luxury cars and waiting for David to come out of the car so I can thank him for the night.

He finally got out with the camera in his hand and a piece of paper in the other. I walked towards him.

“Hey, I have to go now but thank you for tonight. It was fantastic, I’ve never experienced anything like it.” I said.

“Uh…” he was struggling for words, which was nice because he’s like an important person in LA with all the power in his hands, but he’s still so genuine. He could get away with being an asshole but he’s actually the exact opposite of an asshole.

He continued, “well. You know Scott felt really sad today ‘cause he’s girlfriend went to visit her family, so I think going out with him cheered him up.”

I smiled. I didn’t know what to say.

“And I’m glad you enjoy hanging out, I know we just met but I get this feeling when I meet people. I’m really picky.” He chuckled, “I… So, we could hang out again if you want to. See other members of the Vlogsquad or something. So, uh… here’s uh… here are my digits.” He did fingerguns and smiled.

“Okay,” I smiled at the gesture. I took the paper from his hand and we said goodnight.

I smiled the whole drive home. I don’t even feel tired or sleepy, not even one bit.


End file.
